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The Face of Spain
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Life and Work
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Velazquez
Self-Portrait
c. 1640
Oil on canvas, 46 x 38 cm
Museo de Bellas Artes, Valencia
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1599
Birth in Seville of Diego Velazquez, the first child of Juan
Rodriguez de Silva and Jeronima Velazquez, members of the lesser
nobility. His grandparents had come to Spain from the Portuguese
harbour city of Porto. Little is known about Diego's siblings - five
brothers and a sister. In accordance with the practice of the times,
the young Diego was educated in the humanities.
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1611
Velazquez' father comes to an agreement with Francisco Pacheco on
the details of Diego's training with that painter. In his biography
of Velazquez, Palomino states that Diego had previously spent a
short time studying with Francisco de Herrera the Elder. Poets and
scholars as well as artists met at Pacheco's workshop, in an
intellectual climate where there was enthusiastic discussion of such
subjects as artists of classical antiquity, Raphael, Michelangelo
and above all Titian, as well as the theory of art. At this time,
Velazquez became familiar with the chiaroscuro painting and
naturalistic subjects of the school of Caravaggio.
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1617
Velazquez is accepted into the painters' guild of St. Luke in
Seville, after passing an examination assessed by Pacheco and a
painter called Juan de Uceda. Membership of this guild was necessary
before he could found his own workshop, employ assistants, and
receive commissions from churches and public institutions. On 23
April Velazquez marries Juana, daughter of his teacher Pacheco, who
brings several houses in Seville to the marriage as her dowry.
Within less than three years they have two daughters, of whom only
one, Fran-cisca, survives. Few of the twenty or so paintings
executed by Velazquez in Seville before 1622 are dated and signed;
they include nine bodegones and his first portraits and religious
compositions. Even later, he usually omitted to add dates and
signatures.
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1622
Velazquez goes to Madrid for the first time to see the monastery
palace of the Escorial near the capital, and its art treasures. He
also wishes to paint the new king of Spain, the seventeen-year-old
Philip IV, who has been on the throne for a year. Rodrigo de
Villan-drando, until now the most highly regarded of the court
painters, dies at the end of the year. Velazquez visits Toledo to
see works by El Greco and other painters of that city, including
Pedro de Orrente (1580-1645) and Juan Sanchez Cotan (1561-1627).
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1623
Velazquez is summoned to court by Olivares in the spring, and
receives his first commission for a portrait of Philip IV. The
success of this picture brings the artist an appointment as court
painter and the privilege of becoming the only artist permitted to
paint the king in the future. His brilliant career has begun.
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1627
Philip IV organizes an artistic competition between his four
official court painters; Velazquez emerges victorious.
Besides various hostile reactions from his rivals, this success
brings him an appointment as Usher of the Chamber, an office with
the privileges of free board and free medical treatment.
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Velazquez
Philip IV
1624-27
Oil on canvas, 210 x 102 cm
Museo del Prado, Madrid
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1628
Peter Paul Rubens pays a second visit to the court in Madrid on
diplomatic business. A studio is placed at his disposal in the
Alcazar, where Velazquez often visits him at work. Velazquez is the
only Spanish painter to be honoured with these personal
conversations.
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1629
His first journey to Italy takes Velazquez from Genoa to Venice,
and then probably to Florence on his way to Rome, where he stays for
almost a year. Neither Pope Urban VIII nor other ecclesiastical
dignitaries seem to take any interest in his work at this point. He
copies old masters, but also paints large compositions of his own
including The Forge of Vulcan and
Joseph's Bloody Coat Brought to Jacob. He travels home by
way of Naples.
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1631
Velazquez' daughter Francisca, aged fourteen, marries the
painter Juan Bautista Martinez del Mazo.
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1635
The Salon de Reinos in the new palace of Buen Retiro in Madrid
is completed. Velazquez has been working on its artistic decoration
for the past year. One of his major works intended for this setting,
together with several equestrian portraits, is The Surrender
of Breda, part of a cycle of twelve battle pictures by
different painters. The art of Velazquez wins increasing admiration
at court.
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Velazquez
The Surrender of Breda - Self-Portrait (detail)
1634-35
Oil on canvas
Museo del Prado, Madrid
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1636
The hunting lodge of Torre de la Parada, near Madrid, is
extended and ornamented with many pictures from the workshop of
Rubens, as well as hunting portraits, portraits of dwarfs, and
pictures of the classical god of war Mars and of Aesop and Menippus
by Velazquez. The king appoints his court painter "Assistant to the
Wardrobe" (without salary).
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1643
The Count of Olivares is dismissed from his position as prime
minister and banished from court. Shortly before this time, the king
promoted Velazquez to the post of Chamberlain in his private
chambers (although still without a regular salary). Later he is made
assistant to the superintendent of special building projects. In the
next few years his art approaches its peak in such pictures as
Venus at her Mirror and The Fable of Arachne.
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1646
At the beginning of this year the king's sister Maria dies; she
had been married to Emperor Ferdinand III. Towards the end of the
year the king's wife Queen Isabel and the heir to the throne, the
young Prince Baltasar Carlos, both die.
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1649
Velazquez travels to Italy again. His main destination is Rome, where,
among other pictures, he paints the famous portrait of Pope Innocent X.
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1650
Velazquez is admitted to the Academy of Rome.
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1651
Velazquez returns to Madrid, where he is to paint a portrait of the
new Queen Mariana, Philip's second wife, although he does not
complete it until 1652. He is appointed Supreme Court Marshal out of
a list of six candidates. He is now able to move into a large
apartment in the Casa del Tesoro, linked by a passage to the royal
palace, where he has already had his workshop for years, employing
many assistants and pupils (none of whom, however, was of very great
artistic merit).
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1652
Probably in this year, an illegitimate son of Velazquez with the
first name of Antonio is born in Rome.
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Velazquez
Philip IV
c. 1655
Oil on canvas, 69 x 56 cm
Museo del Prado, Madrid
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1656
Velazquez begins work on his great masterpiece, Las Meninas.
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Velazquez
Las Meninas or The Family of Philip IV
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1659
After many enquiries into the details of his ancestry, Velazquez
is admitted to the knightly Order of Santiago.
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1660
Velazquez dies in the palace in Madrid on 6 August.
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1724
Antonio Palomino publishes the first biography of Velazquez.
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1734
The royal palace in Madrid is destroyed by fire; many works by
Velazquez are destroyed or badly damaged in the blaze.
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